The institute is still under construction and probably will be for a few more years. While the wings that were mentioned earlier have been built and will be posted here over the next few weeks or months, the Geology, Geography, History, Philosophy and Theology wings are yet to be built. lets wrap up your admission to SMBI with a brief discussion on the person and nature of Christ.
Christ, a coequal part of the triune Godhead discussed in the previous post is both fully God and fully Man. This is the simple revealed truth found in God’s word (True God: John; 1:1-3,48, 4:17-18, 5:27, 20:28, 21:6,17, Rom 9:5, 1 John 5:20, Heb 1:3, 13:8, Matt 9:6, 28:18, 20, 21:1-7, 26:20-25, Luke 5:4-6, 18:31-33, 22:8-13. and True Man: 1 Tim 2:5, Luke 2, 24:39, Matt 4:2, 26:1-27:66, John 11:35, 19:28, Heb 4:14-16.) Christ’s revealed nature has caused much confusion and disagreement over the past 2000 years. Not because God’s word is not clear but because man tries to apply fallible human reason to the unfathomable God-Man Christ. (As stated before, I include the scripture references for those who wish to use this as a Bible study, and we will discuss scriptural authority in coming posts.)
Many of those failed attempts have centuries ago been clearly shown to be wrong by God’s word and the church, but these heresies (false doctrines that contradict the truth of scripture) keep coming back with new generations. Christ is not like two boards glued together where one can define where the divine and human begin and end. His human nature was comingled with His divine nature at His conception and from that point forward Christ’s nature was changed forever to include His human nature. He was not a manifestation or three and a half year aberration as taught by the modern day Gnostics (those who believe all flesh is evil, therefore Christ in their minds could not have been true man). The long list of “True Man” texts cited above attest to the truth that Christ was and is clearly true man, fully human.
The three ecumenical creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian) were all written to give a clear proclamation of who God reveals himself to be. However, the primary thing under attack between 150AD & 535AD, when these three creeds were written, was the person of Christ and His fully divine and fully human natures. For this reason you will find that all three creeds give the bulk of their attention to defining scripturally who Christ is. A careful examination of these creeds reveals them to be thoroughly biblical both in their language and content. For a fuller explanation of the creeds, I direct your attention to the following website: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2681.
Why does any of this matter? It is only through the person of Christ that we have access to God. So satan, the author of confusion, has been in a continuous misinformation campaign to confuse sinful man as to who Christ is. Because satan knows faith in Christ is the only way we can escape the clutches of the great deceiver, he is always working hard to confuse God’s truth!
Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil were purchased by Christ. His fully human nature is a necessary part of that purchase price. How a fully human Christ can be comingled with a fully divine Christ is an unexplainable mystery that is also a clearly revealed truth. Human reason and our sinful nature cannot understand what only faith can accept. The cross is foolishness to those who do not believe, and the pain and suffering of Good Friday is illogical, scandalous, and an “in your face” proclamation of Christ’s victory.
There is no Easter celebration without a Good Friday!!!
An empty cross is meaningless if our Lord and Savior never bled and died on it!
And an empty tomb is meaningless if our Lord and Savior never lay dead within its walls!
I know that my redeemer lives… what comfort this sweet sentence gives….
This truth has eternally life-saving implications. Do not reject the revealed truth that gives all mankind access to a redeemed life, eternally reconciled to God.
Have a blessed stay here at SMBI
In Christ
Pastor Portier
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